Managing stakeholders to avoid roadmap derailment

After aligning everyone around a roadmap, you might think the task is complete. Very often, however, maintaining alignment on a roadmap over time is more difficult than establishing it in the first place.

Most roadmaps require not only longer-term strategic changes, which can be planned ahead of time, but also urgent changes to the current priorities, which require trade offs and difficult decision making. You will learn how to:

• Manage ongoing requests
• Plan for routine roadmap updates
• Decide whether to say yes or no to a roadmap update
• Say “no” tactfully and effectively

Melissa Appel coaches product management leaders, helping them build and manage effective teams and improve stakeholder relationships. She previously spent 20 years as a practitioner at companies of various sizes and stages. Melissa and Bruce McCarthy have a new book out, Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders.

Melissa, Bruce, Phil Hornby and the Product Culture team help companies like NewStore, Camunda, Genomics England, Socure, Toast, and Kaleyra achieve their product visions through advising, forums, workshops, and private coaching. The Product Culture CPO Forum creates a space where members share best practices and work to become better leaders.